Q: I was reading an article in Indian Express – Sept. 1st, 2016; in that article, it is clearly stated that “42.70% of Muslims have highest percentage of illiterates in India.” In other articles, only 11 out of 100 Muslim children pass out 12th, and even worse for Muslim girls. My questions: What are the causes of illiteracy among Muslims?

YMD

Regretfully, your this question suggests that you might not have been able to self-educate so far. Whatever the circumstances may be, you might pay attention to yourself and attempt to read a book every week, for next ten years. It is at the end of that study that you might be able to answer to such questions yourself.

As for we answering the question, it has an historical answer, and historical answers are not easy to narrate. Apart from self-study, you may have to spend say a year, among the poorest of the poor who are also the least educated, in order to get a sense of what could be done to create a meaningful impact on them.

Q: Why there is no proper guidance from Muslim leaders (Mufti, Aalim, Maulana)?

YMD

Admittedly, Mawlanas have their responsibility. But true Mawlanas are few. The voice of few is rendered weak in a massive population such as ours in India, so that, ultimately, they are not heard by the masses, especially because of the untrue Mawlanas, whose fracas drowns the voice of the true Mawlanas.

However, a great part of the responsibility has shifted to those who have received University/ College education. Compared to the true or untrue Mawlanas, they are plenty. But, the great majority of them, year after year, decade after decade, have completely turned their backs to the problems of the Ummah. It is they who should have devoted their time, money and energies to this important cause, but they behave as if they belong to another Ummah.

Q: Why is no modern education included in Madarsas? At least they should include English-speaking courses, Computer courses and other skilled level courses.

YMD

So, you too are almost completely cut off from the realities of life, and wish to, without realizing it, push the responsibility back to others – to Mawlanas. You do not say, “Why the (so-called) educated not look into this problem,” instead of saying “Why Mawlanas cannot do it?”

The basics of “English, Computer Science, etc.” is what a modern degree attempts to teach. Yet, there are hundreds of millions, Muslim and non-Muslim, especially in the North,” who, after such education, cannot speak a correct sentence in English, or write a paragraph in English that is legible. They can only perform labour jobs, which anyway those can also do, who have not been to a school. So, education of the kind you think should be included in Madrasa curriculum, doesn’t seem to do much good to the population in general.

Madrasah education is for Islamic learning. For “English, Computer Science, etc.,” there are a hundred schools for every single Madrasah, but which are empty of Muslim students. The Problem then, is somewhere else.

Q: What are the measures we should take to repair the damage that has been done so far?

YMD

We have stated in the lines above, where to start from.

While attempting self-education, you may work on preventing drop-outs. Ninety per cent of Muslim boys and girls in primary schools do not continue to enter colleges. You may invest your own money, time and energy to this cause, which happens to be the major cause of illiteracy among Muslims.

Q: I need for me your guidance to take step to start to educate the Muslims.

Muzaffar Sharief,On Email

YMD

Without anyone’s help, without depending on others’ money, but entirely depending on your own resources, time, and energy, relying on, and seeking Allah’s Pleasure, make a start at the above project; and give it 25 years.

Q: I am 23 years old and I want do an Aalim course, but I heard that, in some Madrasas, it is five-years-course and in some it is nine-years-course. Why? Is not the same things taught everywhere? And is there an entrance test? If yes, what will they ask?

I am confused please help me.

Aakeef Inamdar Hussain,On Email

YMD

So, you are already a critic of the Madrasah even before joining one.

At all events, Madrasah system does not accept students beyond ten years of age.

So, it is a blessing for you. You can now pursue your Islamic studies without the Madrasah tenure.

Start learning Arabic immediately. A set of five books called “Minhaj al-`Arabiyyah” is available both in Urdu and English and is pretty cheap. See to it that a set is in your house by this evening. Its first three volumes can be done, in about three months, without a teacher. Thereafter, Allah will show you the way forward.

Do not run after, here and there, looking for a teacher, nor shifting from course to course on-line. When finished with the three volumes, contact us again.

Q: I would like to know whether smoking Hokkah is permissible in Islam (haram or halal).

YMD

For some, it is prohibited, for others it is on the borderline of Halal and Haram, while to the majority it is Makruh.

Q: Now-a-days, I see many youngsters in the habit of smoking Hokkah which is available in different flavours.

YMD

Different flavours? So, you have also tried it.

At all events, it appears that since the older generation has given up Huqqah, the younger generation is adopting it to compensate.

Every unhealthy practice of the past is likely to re-appear to replace one or the other good practice which will disappear.

Flavours have nothing to do with the legality of Huqqah.

Q: I also see many young girls and lactating mothers involved in this activity.

YMD

Women of our times are under the impression that they are equal to men. Secondly, the modern age has much cheapened women in their own eyes. Gone is the grace, come ungraceful practices.

Q: Is it a health hazard?

Mehreen Mahmoodi,On Email

YMD

Only a systematic research can supply the answer. Does the smoke passing through water, filter out, wholly or partly, and its long passage through pipes has the same effect as cigarettes, are other points of research.

Q: How many wives did Prophet Muhammad (saws) have? I read in some Islamic websites that he didn’t marry Mariah Qibtiyya (saws). I suspect their authenticity; so I wanted to confirm that with you. Please answer it at the earliest.

Wanto Beanonymous,On Email

YMD

It is surprising that you do not know how many wives the Prophet had. For his antagonists this has been a titillating topic since centuries, but for the first Islamic century, because, his followers were proud of the fact that their Prophet had so many wives, and his contemporary unbelievers respected him for being so kind towards women.

Nor it is digestible that you suspect the authenticity of Mariyya Qibtiyyah’s status.

She was, technically speaking, an Umm al-Walad.

Umm al-Walad is one who had been a slave-girl, but who gave birth to a child from her master. With the master’s death, she immediately became a free woman.

The Prophet’s Umm al-Walad was one of the two Christian sisters, sent as gifts by a Christian King (of Alexandria) called Muqawqis. He also sent a young man along with them, cousin of the two sisters. He was a eunuch. A mule called Shahba’ was also gifted. While Mariyyah (ra) remained with him, he gave her sister Sireen to Dihya al-Kalbi, in whose form sometimes Jibril appeared when appearing as a human.

But why did he keep her for himself, while there were wives some of whose beauty was known, and when there was no shortage of slave-girls, of high standing. The shallow-minded will jump to low conclusions. The Prophet kept her for himself because she belonged to a high status prince family.

Those days, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and the rest of mankind, followed the system of slavery. Islam removed the system gradually, except for the corrupt Muslims – although a negligible minority – who found ways to keep slaves until recent times.

When mentioning Mariyyah (ra), we may remind ourselves of an interesting hadith. `A’isha (ra) reports: “A night of my turn, the Prophet came in and entered into my blanket. I woke up during the night but didn’t find him in bed. I slipped out and went around to the houses of his other women, but didn’t find him. So I said to myself, ‘May be he is gone to Mariyyah Qibtiyyah.’ (Mariyyah lived at the end of the town). As I passed through the Mosque (adjacent to her house) my foot fell on him. He was in prostration.”

As regards his nine wives, please see next month’s editorial of this magazine.

Q: Sorry to tell you, I don’t find your answers relevant to the questions asked. A brother is asking about Du’a in Jama’at after every FarzSalah. Quote a hadith and explain him; instead, you are talking about a long Du’a in WitrSalah and calling others as ‘rift-creators.’ By giving answers like this, we will be creating rift.

Awaiting for your reply.

Tanzeem Ahmed,On Email

YMD

If we are color blind, which is a great loss to human width of vision, then you can only see black and white, and imagine that the world is black and white, unable to perceive even that which animals can perceive.

In religion, they want to hear haram or halal? The Prophet (saws) said that something is in-between. So the Fuqaha’ look into that which is in between, discover the richness and open the road to the stars and beyond. They write down books such as:Ashbah wa Nazaa’ir.

The sensors of the Fuqaha’ are ten. But those who did not understand the Qur’an, because they were so engaged with the Hadith, that they threw away the rest of the sensors, holding on to only one: by whose requirements too they could not manage to live. Some became street peddlers: “Ya akhi, this is haram; ya akhi, that is haram, beware, here is a hadith.”

While believing in one, they pronounce two: Qur’an and Sunnah. Influenced by the rift-creators, majority of the young men and women learnt the slogan: Qur’an and Sunnah, knowing none, understanding none except halal and haram. “Where is the hadith?” they ask.

There are good reasons for the popularity of the new religion. It is mere ten per cent of the original. Give them the vast libraries, both secular as well as Islamic, and they will use them as fuel.

So, the new generation, seeking knowledge to be leaders, seek simple answers.

Q: The father of a Sunni Muslim daughter expired as well as the Grandfather which means her father predeceased as he expired during the lifetime of his father.

It is learnt from the Shariat/ Muslim laws/ Muslim personal Laws by various dignitaries, authorities/ Islamic scholars that the Grand-daughter is not entitled to any share out of the Grand-father’s estate.

It is, therefore, humbly requested to issue a Fatwa regarding the Grand-daughter whether she is entitled to any share out of her Grandfather’s estate or not.

Mohammad Yousuf Shah,Kashmir (J & K State)

YMD

It sounds odd that having obtained a Fatwa issued by “various dignitaries, authorities/ Islamic scholars,” you ask us to issue a Fatwa.

In any case, we are not qualified to issues Fatwas. If in doubt, you may write to Deoband for reconfirmation.

Q: My son who is doing MBBS asks me: ‘We are required to test and experiment some dead bodies in anatomy classes. Of these, two dead bodies were donated by someone for the use of medical purpose. Does Islam permit to donate a Muslim’s dead body for its test and experiment in a medical college? If not so, how will medical science grow and develop in Muslim world?

Muhammad Abdus Samad,Gauripur, Assam

YMD

A clear answer has not emerged from the scholars of Islam regarding use of experiments on the dead body, or its parts. One of the reasons is that the scholars do not know why at all a dead body has to be opened up, seeing that nothing is functioning at the organ level, or cellular level a few hours after death. At best, one can see the arrangement, such as, where is the heart and where the kidney, or the tissues, etc. by opening up living body, which they do so often.

Why, for instance, a monkey’s body is not enough, seeing that its ninety-five per cent genes are common with humans? Why study of cells, which live on for 50-60 replication, is not enough? But of course, this is not such a simple issue.

Muslim scholars have been hesitant to answer because Islamically, a dead body belongs to Allah (swt), and deserves as much respect as a living body.

Also, their belief in Allopathic medicinal progress is not too impressive seeing that no cure has been found for any of the major diseases: heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer, migraine, organs’ failure, etc. no matter how many million bodies have been cut up.

How did other medicinal systems develop without ever opening up a single body, such as homeopathy, acupuncture, and others? And, why has the so-called Unani system been abandoned with the disappearance of Hakeems who could say to a woman that she was pregnant merely from the pulse, or that a man was empty-stomached or not by the same count?

About YMD

Among the major publications of IQRA Publications is the popular Islamic monthly in English, the Young Muslim Digest, arguably among the foremost in this type of publishing in India. This magazine is being brought out regularly by IQRA Publications since the past 36 years.